Pomona, CA, 11-11-2009 — This weekend at the Pomona Fairplex, the past, present and future (flash) will converge for Nitro Funny Car driver Mendy Fry. How so? On Saturday and Sunday at the National Hot Rod Association’s season-ending Auto Club Finals, Fry will once again shoe Gary Messenger’s resplendent-yet-potent, gorgeous black-and-gold 1973 Dodge AA/Funny Car, a machine rich in drag strip history, whose lineage is traced to renowned and notorious drag racers such as Gene Snow, Brent Fanning and Roland Leong. Ironically, the entry also has ties to Fry herself, as this is the same racer that she earned her Nitro Funny Car license in, and then campaigned with tuner Donnie Couch to a runner-up finish at the 2008 Las Vegas Speed Spectacular.

At that event the machine was known as the “Future Flash,” and was Fry and Couch’s swan song appearance with the car, but this weekend this same entry will be re-christened the “Nitro Kitty Charger,” in reference to both Fry’s return and her popular racing brand. In preparation for its imminent reappearance, the race car was recently updated and retrofitted for Fry at Donnie’s fabled West Coast Funny Car Factory, and will be tuned by Couch. Thus this weekend reunites Messenger, Couch and Fry, but because the team is still sorting out financing and partnerships for its participation in the 2010 NHRA Heritage Series, as of now the car is provisionally — and cheekily — titled the “Messenger, Fry, Couch & YourNameHere’s ‘Nitro Kitty Charger.’”

The unlettered Nitro Kitty Charger body

The “Nitro Kitty Charger’s” quarter-mile exhibitions at Pomona this weekend is part of an effort coordinated by NHRA Heritage Series majordomo Steve Gibbs, and is designed to draw attention to that program’s events, which include remarkably popular vintage-themed drag races from Bakersfield to Boise. To that end, among those joining Fry for this weekend’s fiery and ferocious festivities will be the AA/Funny Cars of Josh Crawford, the “Pisano & Matusbara” Nitro Vega and the “Lil’ Nate” Barracuda owned by Howard Bugg, as well as a pair of AA/Fuel dragsters.

Besides the yeoman work of Couch and his West Coast Funny Car Factory workers to put this effort together in time for its assault on Pomona, the “Nitro Kitty Charger” would not be making laps without the support of Fry’s associate sponsors, Justice Brothers, Lucas Oil, Hyevon Choppers, Jeg’s High Performance, Mickey Thompson Tires and SCE Gaskets. As an exclamation of her appreciation, as the final touches were applied to the Funny Car, Mendy exulted: “I’m so happy to be back in my pretty car.” -30-